Category Archives: chirography was donkey poop

Over the last five years, there have been quite a few products that havent lived up to billing. Whether its shorted hits, bad design, or lack of content in a box, there were more than I can count. Here is my countdown of the worst of the worst, and I will go into a little of what makes them so bad. Of course, for some, the shittiness extends beyond mere words, but ill at least try to capture it with each post.

Here is number four, enjoy.

When it comes to the worst of the worst, 2007 seems to have been a banner year for Upper Deck, with number four being SP Chirography. This set was bad for more than just design, and that is why it is on this list. Its rare that you see a product that epically fails in multiple areas, and Chirography is definitely in that category. It was also a late release, much like SP Signature Edition this year, but unlike Signature Edition, there were not many people willing to buy it.

The First major issue with this set was the design, leaving many collectors with a bad taste in their mouths. Because many of the other sets in 2007 were looking much better than normal, to have a bland set like Chirography was a complete killer for this product. Each pack may have contained an autograph, but the autographs looked the same 90% of the time. In fact, the only difference in the auto design from the base design was just a plain old sticker slapped on with some foil numbers. That’s it. Sure there were some auto subsets, but the design was actually ten times worse, especially a few of them that had more text on the front than most card backs usually have.

In addition to the horrible design, the title of the set was incredibly off putting. No one knew how to say it, and it always weirded me out when I saw some 12 year old on video, busting one pack, and calling it “Ichiro-ography.” Honestly, the title isnt that big of a deal normally, but when more than half of the people have to pull out a dictionary to say “I want a pack of Chi-rog-raphy,” it’s a bad marketing move. I guess that’s why most people just said, “Ill take SP Authentic instead.”

Speaking of people only being able to bust one pack at a time, we have come to the main reason why this product sucked so hard: PRICE. If you are thinking that a crappy product like this would cost 100 bucks a box, you are dead fucking wrong. A box of Chirography cost in upwards of 250 dollars upon release, with many boxes delivering less than 10 dollars in value. Im guessing the cost of putting 8 autos in a box was the reason for the high cost, but honestly, three Antonio Pittman autos and a few Tony Hunts are not going to get you where you need to be. Its almost like buying 8 boxes of 2009 SP signature edition, and hoping that you pull a 300 dollar card.

I know I know, some of you are probably wondering why SP Signature Edition didn’t make it to this spot instead, and its because it only costed 40 bucks a box. This costed at least 6 times that amount for what you would normally get in a box. When you combine a horrid format with a bad design, you beat out a sticker dump product that most people knew about prior to release.

Funny enough, when I first spoke with Upper Deck in the original interview, I brought up the shittiness of this awful product. Even THEY thought it was donkey poop, and apologized. Since when has that ever happened in this industry? I think that alone says something about how bad this product is.

If you would think it could not get worse from here, I would tell you to bring a barf bag from now on.

This set was definitely a surprise edition to the calendar, and I think that I am going to like this product based on the few previews that UD posted on facebook. However, after considering things, I cant help but draw parallels to the awful 2007 Chirography attempt at a product like this. Chirography was such a bomb that any correllation makes me very, VERY weary.

These cards do look very good however, and SP Signature has been a success in the past, but I get a strange tingle up the back of my neck that tells me to be very cautious about latching on to a product like this. First, I know the MSRP wont be ridiculous like it was for Chirography, Im guessing around 80 bucks, and the cards wont be completely cookie cutter either. Factor in that the autos look on card, and I could be pleasantly surprised.

I will say this, to see a great product like Premier get the axe instead of a price and content cut, only to be replaced by another SP set, makes me angry. Maybe things will work out though.